The new millennium was in the offing. Wondering what to do to commemorate a special moment of time, my eyes desultorily sifting via the various ads of revelries designed to mark the event, I happened to chance upon somewhat news bulletin, tucked away in among the inside pages of the paper. An environmental group was organizing a trip to an island known as Byet Dwaraka.
Byet Dwaraka? Sounded vaguely familiar. Now where had I heard that name before? Some wracking of the gray cells and driblets of recollection trickled in. A couple of years back my journalist brother had interviewed a Marine Archaeologist named S.R. Rao, who had been involved in some fascinating path finding discoveries at Byet Dwaraka. But, I?ll come to that by and by.
So, to Byet Dwaraka I took myself, to usher in the new millennium and to bid adieu to an old 1. And Byet Dwaraka has been on my mind ever because. It was an extraordinary encounter for me. We city dwellers never ever quite feel the vastness of the sky, condemned as we are to mere glimpses of it via the concrete rooftops. But at Byet Dwaraka, there was absolutely nothing to impede one?s view of the enormous expanse of sky in all its majesty and mystery. Except for a few cacti strewn about as well as a thin scattering of jute hovels, there was nothing much else on the island.
Byet Dwaraka is really a tiny horseshoe shaped patch of sand in the Arabian Sea, about 5 km off the coast of Gujarat, in the westernmost tip of India. When we, a motley crowd of 45 or so, arrived at Okha, the port town from where we had been about to embark on a ferry ride to this patch of sand, after a night and day?s journey from Mumbai (Bombay), darkness was already falling.
So, in darkness we made the hour or so ferry ride across, and in darkness we landed on the beach. Except for the sole lantern that was suspended on a bamboo pole, it was darkness that greeted us. For, there was no electricity there. Darkness, and the incessant swishing-swashing sound of the sea. Which only seemed to deepen the silence and darkness. A moderate wind whipped about, which would pick up in the course of our remain there, into close to gale force. The mildly cold weather, therefore, would bite by way of our layers of insulating clothing, as the wind-chill factor would sharpen its razor edged teeth.
We lived in makeshift jute tents, the sand our floor. In addition to becoming electricity free of charge, there was no drinking water either, which had to be brought in every day from the mainland. Fresh water being a scarce commodity, we even brushed our teeth with seawater. Attempt it some time, and you?ll know how godawful it tastes! The island was so narrow that when the tides came in, the waters actually licked the edges of our tents. Inside the dark of the night that can be an overwhelming sight to behold indeed. That large mass of water, the whole ocean, coming in closer and closer, until one felt it would swallow us all up, dragging us all in, into its dark, fathomless depths.
And then, there was that dome of a sky. That enormous entity. Creating me feel as tiny as a grain of sand on that patch of sand lost in the middle of the sea. The night sky was particularly spectacular. There was no moon, along with the stars looked close enough to touch. No electricity, you see, so the sky, the sea, and everything else, us which includes, melded together within the pitch darkness. We did have oil lamps and flashlights with us, naturally, but we employed to keep them off, reluctant to mar nature?s grandeur. We would lie under that sky on the silky sand, the sea nibbling at our toes, and some of the a lot more knowledgeable amongst us would point out the constellations. And astronomy was the main topic of conversation. It had to be. It was all more than us.
But, the most fascinating factor about Byet Dwaraka lay unseen, submerged below the sea. But, I need to let you know about Dwaraka city very first. The city of Dwaraka, renowned in myth and legend, was as soon as the capital of Lord Krishna?s empire. It really is among the seven sacred cities, or Sapta Puris, in addition to among the 4 dhams, or excellent pilgrimage centers, for Hindus. Dwaraka city, as shown by archaeological excavations, stands on a site with five earlier archaeological layers of human occupation. Byet Dwaraka is said to be the place where Lord Krishna lived even though he ruled Dwaraka.
And his palace, inundated by the rising seas more than eons of time, time which has given that slipped into the pages of mythology and fable, lay right there under our feet, under those heaving, seething seas, which was discovered by the Marine Archaeologist, S.R. Rao. Artifacts like pottery and utensils have been brought up and are in the process of being carbon dated to establish the time period. Several Indians are convinced that the time period of the Hindu epics, the Ramayana and also the Mahabharata, which functions Lord Krishna, goes way further back than the mere 5000 BC that western historians date them at.
So, there had been we, speechless in the wonder as well as the mystery of a philosopher king, cloaked in divinity, who gave us the Bhagvad Gita, the remnants of whom have been washed away by the oceans of time. And somehow time stood still. And a sense of timelessness engulfed me.
We spent eight days there. Although the others poked around the island looking for sea creatures, shells, corals, migratory birds, like the plovers, herons, egrets, sandpipers? numerous that all around? all I did was sit in the edge of the sea and just watch nature?s pageant in awe, feeling the mystery of life wash more than me. I went into the sea for swims, obviously, but mostly I just sat and felt it all. It was that type of a location. When I pay a visit to a new city, I walk. I walk and feel the place. But at Byet Dwaraka, I just required to sit. Quietly.
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